Thursday, 29 April 2010

I was lucky enough to have a weeks work in a working (victorian) letterpress print shop. I absolutely loved it and I must thank all the people at Blists Hill Victorian Town who helped me along the way. The pasties, chips and bitter were amazing. My 'gaffer' for the week was Martin who is a keen photographer so HERE are some f his photos, top bloke he is.

I used to go there as a wee lad and went on several school trips so it was weird to be there working as an adult. It was great to be surrounded by the large wooden type and to use the tiny metal type to typeset was, although a long process, a thoroughly rewarding one. I did have to dress up as a victorian printer's apprentice for the week which was a little off putting but I strangely got used to it quicker than I thought I would.

Anyway, it was a bloody tragedy that I had to come back to me desk on the Monday morning after spending a week learning a craft that, despite a recent resurgence in interest, is still sadly dying out. I'm now on eBay everyday looking for an Adana printing press, I'll let you know when I get one

I'm on a roll with the blog this morning. Thought I'd give a shout out to a friend I should be working with shortly. He's a spoken word performer 'somewhere between spoken word, hip-hop and theatre' and he had me in the palm of his hand when I caught up with him at a recent barbeque. His name is Simon Mole and you should give him a listen HERE

While I'm on the subject here is the fantastic John Cooper Clarke with the picture of Britain that is 'Evidently Chickentown'. Check it... but if you don't like the f word, don't bother...

Thought I'd post up a bit more of my own work. This time its for a proper company and everything. Ashaway sell badminton equipment and specialise in string, HERE is their website. I've done a few bits for them in the past and they've asked me to have a look at some of their string packets. Here is what I've come up with for initial ideas:

I think I prefer the first set of ideas as they look simple, professional and the string is at the centre of the design. Functionality was also a big factor in the process, I felt the packets for the different sports needed to be clearly defined hence the colour coding and large type size/illustrations. Anyway, I better get on with the development stage.

Thursday, 15 April 2010

Finally got round to sorting out a few photos of our trip to France. It was an amazing little break (apart from the ferry company being idiots and striking about the croissants or something). Log burner, freezing mornings, paraffin heater, beer, sausages, walks, sun, stars, cheese, wine, tomatoes, crepes, baguette, horses, ducks. I then remembered that I had to go back to work and was soon back in my normal arsey mood...

Thursday, 8 April 2010

Bonjour! This is a great video from a series of others by Keith Loutitt. He uses a technique called 'Tilt-Shift'. The depth of field is really narrow which gives the film a miniature look to it. It took me a while when I first watched it to work out what I was watching.

Got back from France yesterday and am missing it already. Spent four days in the middle of nowhere walking, eating cheese, bread, and meat and drinking beer. marvellous. I'll post more photos up when I've gone through them.